across the table the way they did withbillclinton, theway they did with ronald reagan, and the way you get things done in washington, rather than saying hey, would you stick with grover norquist or would you not or would you address entitlements or not. i believe it's vital that we address the entitlements, who are the elephant in the room, but that would be up to the people who would be sitting across the table from each other. we cannot go over this fiscal cliff, no matter what people on both ends of the political spectrum say. i believe that there was a popularity poll in case you missed it where now members of congress rank just above car salespeople and i'm a great admirer of car salespeople, you know. it's not even astonishing and it angers me beyond belief, even journalists rank higher than members of congress. >> former senate majority leader george mitchell knows what it's like to be in the middle of the debate. he joins me now. senator mitchell, you more or less have been in john boehner's shoes. you were a congressional leader hammering out a tax and spending cut deal with t